1867 – 1951 An educator and clergyman with uncommon vision and energy, Woollcombe founded Ashbury College and directed it for its first 42 years. Ashbury today is recognized as one of the finest private schools in Canada. During his … Read More
This imposing Gothic Revival style church at the corner of Laurier Ave. E. and Chapel St., was designed by English architect Alfred Calderon and was completed in 1900. It is designated a heritage building under the Ontario Heritage Act. With … Read More
The grand house with a beautiful walled garden standing at 407 Wilbrod St. has been the residence of the Australian High Commissioner since 1940. It is believed the house was designed by Ottawa architect J.H. Watts, the first curator of … Read More
The rambling Edwardian house with the big verandas that used to stand at 345 Laurier Ave. E. (right beside Laurier House) was demolished in the 1960s to allow the construction of the current undistinguished apartment building. The house had been … Read More
A little over one hundred years ago, the area around the intersection of Rideau St. and Wurtemburg Ave. was Ottawa’s main hospital precinct[1]: The Carleton County Protestant Hospital first established in 1851 still stands at the corner of Rideau and … Read More
This impressive eight unit stone row at 363-383 Daly Ave. was built in 1874 by Honoré Robillard in the Norman style, a style more reminiscent of buildings in old Québec City and Montreal than Ottawa. It is one of only … Read More
The Rideau Canal is North America’s oldest continuously-operated canal and marks Sandy Hill’s western boundary. It is no exaggeration to say that Ottawa owes its birth to the Canal as there was no settlement in the area before its construction … Read More
St Alban’s, at 454 King Edward Ave. is one of the oldest churches in Ottawa. Built in 1867 on a lot purchased for $600 by H.N. Bate from L.T. Besserer on what was then the edge of town, it was … Read More
January 28, 1931 was a typical cold winter day in Ottawa. In the late afternoon, kids were skating or playing hockey at the Sandy Hill rink. Twelve-year old Munroe Dingwall was skiing with friends down Somerset Ave. E. Most men … Read More
What has been Ottawa’s worst disaster? The 1998 ice storm? The 1957 Byward Market Fire? The Great Fire of 1900? In terms of human lives lost, its worst disaster by far happened a hundred years ago when it, and … Read More